Yesterday we got our first big snow storm of 2020. The night before I set up one of my cameras to do an 8 hour time lapse to capture the weather all day long.
A cool time lapse of the storm from start to almost finish.
Predictions were all over the place but at the end of this we got 8 inches of snow with layers of ice in between. Today it’s very heavy and wet yet cold enough to still have ice in the trees.
This morning’s sunrise.
After the sunrise and after I got done with most of my work I set out to clear a path so we can get out of the house and get some exercise.
The sun will do the rest but the ice and snow are here to stay for a while.
Winter sneaks up on me every year. Slowly the weather turns colder as the days get shorter. But generally it’s not until one day in December when I walk outside in the evening that I think to myself, “Wow, it’s cold out!”
Tonight was that time for me this year. It’s December 15, very close to the winter solstice. Tomorrow is our first real snow storm predicted to bring more than a dusting. Actually it might be more like a foot here where I live according to some models. Time will tell.
It’s 24º at 11pm. Burrr.
It will be interesting to see what pans out. Normally I don’t worry about cleaning off snow until there is more than 8″ so tomorrow may be one of those days. The temperature is in the Goldilox zone of right at freezing and down to 20º with lots of water in the air. We’ll have to see but I’ve noticed out here that these forecast numbers can be conservative.
Forecast for tomorrow’s storm says a foot of snow.
I don’t have a business that requires me to work outside in this stuff so I say let it snow! How much will determine if I get out and shovel with the tractor or let nature take it’s course. I’ve marked the drive so that if it’s deep I’ll be able to see where to plow.
First it was moved into 2021. They must have gotten together and said, “To heck with it, let’s move it into 2022 because 2021 is shaping up to be a lot like 2020!”
I’ve never planned a concert this far out.
I checked my calendar and it turns out we are free.
A quick reminder that tonight is the best night to view the Geminids. If the sky around you is clear to the west after midnight look up in the direction of the Gemini constellation. Find the Betelgeuse star and you are there.
This is truly a once in a lifetime event. More accurately a once in many lifetimes event. Jupiter and Saturn will be extremely close together. As in view them both in one eyepiece or a pair of binoculars close together.
Without visual aid they will look like a single very bright star – some are calling this the “Christmas star”.
And it is interesting this will also be the Winter Solstice for 2020. Every day is longer from this point forward until the middle of summer.
Looking west/soutwest 45 minutes after sunset
This is where I’ll be on Monday evening December 21.
The weather in Virginia continues to be near perfect with temperatures in the mid 70’s and barely a cloud in the sky. Tonight we took the opportunity to ride bikes down to the Potomac river near Brunswick, MD after work. And we get another day before it rains this week. I’m kinda digging the weather this year but know this is not going to last forever.
2020 has been an interesting year to say the least. One thing that hasn’t changed is the Universe. I work to keep that in mind as I live from day to day.
From my front porch every evening this summer Jupiter and Saturn have been some of the brightest objects in the sky. Using Gloria’s telescope I’ve been able to clearly see the rings of Saturn and the storms of Jupiter along with many of their moons.
Even with nothing than a regular set of binoculars Jupiter is so close to Earth that the moons are clearly visible without much aid. With a zoom lens, camera and tripod one can take a picture of them without much difficulty.
Then there is comet Neowise. This one snuck up on us. Somehow we can put landers on the moon but not know when a comet is orbiting the sun. Granted, the last time it was here was 6,766 years ago. And it won’t be back for another 6,766 years.
That being said, I wanted to find this comet and see if I could capture it from my own front yard. The biggest problem I have with some of the astronomy stuff is that it happens at like 5 in the morning. That’s not always appealing to me. I’ll do it but it would be way more convenient if it was like around midnight.
And, as it turns out, that was going to happen. All I had to do was wait a couple of weeks and I could get a view in the northwest sky as it set with the sun after 10pm.
The first time I saw it was with binoculars. It was so much larger than I was expecting that I had overlooked it for 30 minutes. And it was much more faint than I was expecting especially as it was dodging in and out of the clouds. With my older eyes and the less than ideal viewing conditions this was going to be challenging to take a clear photo of this thing at night.
With a 600mm lens I knew that I could only keep the shutter open for about 5 seconds to keep the blur at a minimum. That means the ISO has to be fast and the aperture wide open. This is going to produce a grainy/noisy photo and if it’s not tack sharp it not going to come out well.
Focusing in the night sky is not easy. Because my eyes are not the best at determining the focal distance like they were when I was 16 I have to use the camera to help me by focusing on stars in the sky and getting them sharp and then assuming that the comet will be sharp in that background. One tiny camera shake and the photo will be ruined.
300 images later, I picked the 3 I liked the best.
Color image of Comet Neowise.
The color image above shows the green core of the comet against some of the stars on a very cloudy night. I was never afforded a totally dark sky view of the comet while it could be seen from here.
Color image of Comet Neowise just above the horizon.
When the comet was behind the clouds I turned my camera around to see if I could take a decent photo of Jupiter and maybe some of it’s moon. Keep in mind I only have a Nikon camera and lens on a tripod so this is not a telescope or anything fancy.
Jupiter and 4 of its moons.
The picture of Jupiter doesn’t look like much at first glance. But I was shocked that I could get such a good photo of the planet and some of it’s moons. If you zoom into the photo you will see that one of the moons is blue. I think this is Europa which has high water content.
If you didn’t get to see it this trip around the sun unfortunately you are now going to have to take my word that it was there. Or use better camera gear than I have.
It was a fun evening I shared with my family. Interesting time in an interesting year looking at cool astronomy objects.
If you get bored, look up. The comet is about gone but many other object are up there. The sky can offer some interesting things to think about. Maybe give you break to think about other things for a while.
This cathartic video from above shows 5 minutes of the process of making hay on our farm. There is no music or narrative. Just make it the size of your screen and enjoy the process.
We gathered 34 round bales of hay in this first cut of 2020.
Things generally slow down this time a year. With the virus things are REALLY slow right now. Everything I’d normally do in the spring, summer and fall is cancelled. There are no vacations planned or other distractions that would normally happen in a summer. This doesn’t look to change before the end of the year.
Health, Family, work and hobbies; I’m blessed to have all these near me.
After the hay bales are wrapped they have to be moved to a place they can be placed on a trailer and placed under a barn roof. This hay is for horses so it must be kept dry.
For some reason I am drawn to the engineering of making hay. There was a time when it would take 5-6 people to do this work and it would take 2-4 times to get the same amount of hay off the ground. Now 1-2 people can do it in a day.
Hopefully we’ll get 1-2 more cuttings this year. The air is cool and we are getting plenty of rain. The grasses love this grow environment. So if the trends of cooler summer and consistent rain continues the hay yield will be high this year.
We have such interesting weather here in between the mountains. The original farm here was named “Crosswind Farm”. I didn’t think much about this until we moved in. The winds come from all directions all the time.
The Coriolis effect is very pronounced here. It’s very easy to see the cloud layers moving at right angles from each other.
It’s been very sunny and warm lately. Thankfully. I was pretty done with winter temperatures around here. It can get cold and stay cold here for half the year. So it’s nice to be in the 80º’s again.
A front came through and brought these clouds, some rain and lightening storms. The grass and trees are uber green. Summer is well on it’s way.
